Erdoğans „Neue Türkei“ am Scheideweg
Erdoğan’s “New Turkey” at a Crossroads

Turkey after the Local Elections in 2019

Summary/Abstract: Despite unfair electoral conditions, advantageous use of state and media resources, a hyper-nationalistic strategy of polarization as well as defamation and marginalization of the opposition, the AKP-led government of President Erdoğan lost the country’s big cities in the local elections of 2019. The biggest defeat came in the economic and financial metropolis of Istanbul. This development implies that retaining the monopoly of power through the use of repression and hyper-nationalism has finally reached its limits. It marks a turning point: President Erdoğan and his AKP-government (Party for Justice and Development) as well as the alliance with the ultra-nationalistic MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) have now reached their zenith and are standing at a crossroads. Whether President Erdoğan and the AKP-government will react with even more repression, or a moderate democratic U-turn is still uncertain. Thus – despite this turning point – there is no quiet time in sight in a Turkey still undergoing political turbulences.

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